“Light from the Lake” is a blog about the inspirational people of Our Lady of the Lake University. It is about students who serve their community, alumni who shape the city, faculty and staff who influence the next generation of leaders, and the Congregation of Divine Providence that founded and sponsors OLLU today. It is about a University community that turned a four-alarm fire in 2008 into a catalyst for growth and renewal. The blog is written by Ken Rodriguez, an award-winning journalist and marketer at OLLU and freelance writer.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

From Migrant Fields to Law School

The hardest part of growing up in Eagle Pass were the summers spent in the fields of Arlington, Minn. There, alongside her parents and two older sisters, Gloria Gloria pulled weeds and removed rocks that weighed 30 to 40 pounds, sometimes a lot more. She also picked squash, pumpkins and cucumbers. Her work days often began at 5 or 6 a.m., ended at 7 or 8 p.m. and ran from mid-March through early October.

“I started,” Gloria says, “when I was 10-years-old.”

To shield herself from the sun, Gloria wore a cap over her head, a handkerchief around her neck, a sweater or jacket and two or three pairs of socks. She asked God for rain to give her family a break, but dreaded the day after her prayers were answered. It was tougher to work in mud-caked fields.

OLLU graduate Gloria Flor Gloria

“It was, ‘Okay, let it rain so we can have a day off but don’t let it rain because it’s going to be much harder to work.’” she recalls. “It was very complicated.”

Migrant labor broke some workers but not young Gloria. Years in the fields, in fact, drove her to college. After receiving her acceptance letter from Our Lady of the Lake University, Gloria didn’t wait to enroll in the Fall of 2008. She started in the summer, right after high school, so she wouldn’t have to work in the fields.

The story gets better: Gloria graduated magna cum laude in three years (B.A. political science),
founded a dance group at OLLU (Danza Azteca), persuaded her two older sisters to attend college, and enrolled at the Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina. “I want to be an immigration lawyer,” she says.

Joaquin and Maria Gloria never imagined their youngest daughter would escape the fields and get a degree. Or that she would get her sisters to do the same. Or that she would wind up in law school. But that’s the thing: Long ago, Gloria Flor Gloria (her full name) set out to break a family cycle and change her future. “I could not,” she says, “survive those fields.”

Gloria tunneled her way out in the classroom. She made up the assignments she missed in the fields, asked for extra work and made As. In high school, Gloria participated on the dance team, played on the softball team, ran track and served in the Spanish club. Despite the long, brutal months in the fields — “I would cry, cry, cry,” she recalls — Gloria fashioned herself into a top college prospect.

Gloria in her Danza Azteca costume

She earned a College Assistance Migrant Program scholarship and a Provost scholarship at OLLU. Gloria touched classmates with her story, inspired faculty and staff and whizzed through school in three years.

Law school, Gloria admits, is difficult. But she has spent her life overcoming difficulties. Gloria Urrabazo, OLLU Vice President for Mission and Ministry, knows that as well as anyone, having worked closely with her on campus. “Gloria,” Urrabazo says, “lives her dream.”